The present invention relates to the use of calibrated wear surfaces to act as round or cycle counter on small arms weapons, large caliber weapons and other military equipment that have critical end of life determination requirements.
In the past there was no finite way for the user to easily determine when a small arms weapon or a critical part of the weapon had reached the end of its safe useable life. The only sure way of determining the end of a part's or weapon's safe life previously was by doing a visual inspection at the depot level or when the weapon failed during firing. Frequently when failure occurs with a weapon during its use, the failure may result in serious injury or death to the user. Prior art devices do not provide the user with a readily descernible indicator to tell the user of a small arms weapon when the weapon has reached the end of its safe useable life. Another problem with the prior art devices was the requirement to keep an accounting record of the number of rounds tried on the weapon to ascertain when the weapon had reached its useable life. Keeping a log or record for the number of rounds fired was feasible for large caliber weapons but not feasible for small arm weapons.